Exploring the clinical usefulness of an electronic diary in fibromyalgia patients: A pilot study

Explorando la utilidad clínica de un diario electrónico en pacientes con fibromialgia: Un estudio piloto

Abstract

This study examines the usefulness of an electronic diary (ED) in the monitoring of clinical manifestations of fibromyalgia (FM), compared to traditional pencil-and-paper self-reports.  Fourteen women with FM completed an interview, several questionnaires, and an ED for a week (several times a day) recording pain, fatigue, sleep, difficulty in thinking, emotional distress, difficulty in daily functioning, and coping with the disease, and stress. There were no differences in the symptoms throughout the moments of the day, observing a sleep latency of 45.36 minutes and sleep duration of 6.25 hours. Significant correlations were found between ED measures depending on the time of day, and between ED measures and questionnaires. The ED showed to be useful for the evaluation of FM symptomatology, and can be a key component in psychological intervention programs.